BUTLER (TNS) — Pennsylvania officials on Thursday were celebrating a federal decision on electrical transformer production that saved the jobs of more than 1,100 steel plant workers.
For months, Butler County officials and workers at the Cleveland-Cliffs Butler Works plant were kept waiting as the U.S. Department of Energy weighed a rule change that would have essentially shuttered the plant.
On Thursday, though, Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm announced that distribution transformers, a key component of the nation’s electrical grid, could continue to use grain-oriented electrical steel, which is only made domestically at the Butler County facility.
Jamie Sychak, the president of United Auto Workers Local 3303, said in a statement that the Department of Energy’s decision was a “victory” for the 1,100 union members at the Butler Works.
“It has been a very long and trying year for Local 3303 and our plant. At the outset of this rule, we faced a plant closure,” Sychak said. “As they say that which does not kill us makes us stronger, and we’re a testament to that. We fought to protect our jobs, our plant, and our community. And today, we won.”
Gov. Josh Shapiro and Sens. Bob Casey and John Fetterman had lobbied Granholm and the Biden administration about the potential impact a rule change would have on the community and families.
“We know the hardworking Pennsylvanians in the energy sector are critical pieces of our economy and we’re grateful to the Biden administration for this commitment to protecting and creating energy jobs, while creating a more efficient, cost-effective and reliable grid in the long term,” Shapiro said in a joint statement released by the Department of Energy.
Casey called the Butler Works plant “the bedrock of the community” and said he would “continue to work with Cleveland-Cliffs and the United Auto Workers to ensure that Pennsylvanian workers remain integral to our energy supply chain.”
Fetterman said the union and its steelworkers “are the backbone of our nation’s manufacturing sector, unrivaled in producing the highest quality steel on the global stage.”
He said the federal decision “safeguards jobs and fortifies our steel production industry, all while enhancing the efficiency of our electrical grid.”
